page_title: Portuguese Romanesque architecture
section_title: Rise and development of Romanesque in Portugal (11th to 13th century)
hierarchical_section_title: Portuguese Romanesque architecture / Rise and development of Romanesque in Portugal (11th to 13th century)
caption_attribution_description: Igreja de São Pedro de Rates, Póvoa de Varzim, Portugal. Foto tirada por Maria João Queirós.
context_page_description: The Romanesque style of architecture was introduced in Portugal between the end of the 11th and the beginning of the 12th century. In general, Portuguese cathedrals have a heavy, fortress-like appearance, with crenellations and few decorative elements apart from portals and windows. Portuguese Romanesque cathedrals were later extensively modified, among others the Old Cathedral of Coimbra, although it only had some minor changes.
  Chronological and geographical distribution of Romanesque buildings in Portugal are intimately connected with the territorial organization emerging from the Reconquista, being the fundamental reason for the differences between a locally influenced artistical phenomenon in the North of the country and a more "international" kind in buildings like Coimbra and Lisbon cathedrals. Romanesque architecture first developed in Minho and Douro regions spreading later southwards to Coimbra. It is in the rural areas of the northwest and center regions that Romanesque buildings are more concentrated, being more dense in the margins of rivers Douro and Mondego.
context_section_description: In Portugal, the Romanesque architecture comes in late 11th century within a wider phenomenon of European cultural and religious spreading to the Iberian Peninsula, influenced by the Cluniac monastical reforms and the arrival of the Orders of Cluny (after 1086), Cister (or Citeaux) (1144), St. Augustine (after 1131) and the Military-Religious Orders of the Knights Hospitaller (1121) and the Knights Templar (1126). The Romanesque architecture, through its prestige, relates with the rise and assertion of Portuguese independence.
  Developing itself later than witnessed in the rest of Europe, in Portugal it only gained real significance after the second quarter of the 12th century, although previous buildings of the same style already existed. Various factors contribute to this aspect, mainly the unstable environment experienced in the Iberian Peninsula at the time due to the Reconquista and the consequent political reorganisation of peninsular geography. In fact, one of the most significant aspects of Romanesque architecture in the Peninsula, but particularly in Portugal, is the noticeable connotation that we find between its spreading and land organisation and occupation. The arrival in Portugal of the religious orders mentioned above must be understood in the general context of the Reconquista. In fact, those monastical institutions received immense privileges from the Portuguese monarchs and nobility, contributing to the security of the territory, but above all, to its social organization. This Reconquista took place from North to South, resulting in the same spread of Romanesque architecture with a decreasing density to the South. Almost no Romanesque artifacts survive in Southern Portugal.
  The first Romanesque churches in the North were simple constructions, consisting of a nave with a timber roof and a rectangular apse. Examples can be found at the Igreja de São Cristóvão de Rio Mau, at the Igreja de Santa Eulália do Mosteiro de Arnoso and at the Church of Fontarcada (with already a semicircular apse at the east end).
  Expansion of the Romanesque style coincided with the reign of D.Afonso Henriques (1139–1185), a monarch with Burgundian background being the son of Count Henry and great grandson of Robert II, King of France. During his reign Lisbon, Coimbra, Porto and Viseu Cathedrals were built and also the Augustinian Monastery of Santa Cruz, projected to be a royal pantheon. The construction began in 1131 and by 1150 the nave and its apses were already finished. Its structural shape and decorative features were a novelty in Portugal, showing that its architect was either probably French or came in contact with French Romanesque architecture from Burgundy like Tournus, Cluny, Paray-le-Monial or Romainmôtier.
  Being a predominantly religious architecture, Portuguese Romanesque style was deeply related with ecclesiastical rural church parishes and monastic monasteries founded or rebuilt in the 12th and 13th centuries, with bishops, by royal mandate, their biggest sponsors.
caption: Main façade of Monastery of Rates old church, a Cluniac monastic building.
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